nir-vana innovation network

The client is a non-profit organization based in Slovakia, with presence in Spain and Hungary and with reach to several more European countries via partners and networks.
The organization certifies products that are designed and produced for simple and affordable repair with the aim to announce the repairability and prolonging the life cycle of the product, meaning not only the disassembly and reassembly process, but to make repair as feasible in terms of time, cost and comfortability as possible, so that it becomes the consumers' first choice.
The organization has an ambition to become a global standard and an integrated ecosystem for product repair. The whole process and philosophy is defined by their own manifesto consisting of 10 rules. A product which complies with all the rules is entitled to be assigned by the product label, which announces the repairability of the product. Any product designed, produced and supported by the producer according to the organization principles is guaranteed to be practically repairable by its users.
The organization certifies durable consumer goods with potential to have their components replaced and to prolong their life cycle.
Durables is a category of consumer goods that do not have to be purchased frequently. Also known as "durable goods," they tend to last for at least three years.
The organization team is composed of professionals with different backgrounds, most of whom have had a long-term dedication to sustainability, the cradle to cradle concept or to the circular economy with the focus on effective sustainability solutions and projects with environmental or social impact.
The organization is looking for subcontracting agreement with producers of potentially repairable products that follow the circularity principles and therefore are interested in such certification of product or group of products. The client wants to spread the information about repairable products via labeling and support responsible producers by presenting the confirmation of quality of their products in this field. The client aims to be a relevant, independent third party support for producers in transition to circular economy.
There is an intention that the cooperation would lead to successful certification and a strong long term partnership.

Advantages & innovations

The main goal of the company is the protection of environment by establishing product certification. Certified products will fulfill conditions of simple, feasible and comfortable reparability and thereby long durability. This possibility of being repaired is one of the basic processes of circular economy. Organization´s mission is to research and implement comprehensive solutions for creating truly repairable products. They created their own manifesto with simple rules that define what is repairable. This certification will influence economy to be oriented to the manufacture of long-lasting products, to increase production of components, to provide services, to support new design of products. At the same time it will positively influence waste management by decrease of amounts of waste, reducing costs associated with separation and disposal of waste. It will also help to use resources responsibly and thereby protect the environment. The certification of products is planned to be worldwide, the start of the business activities is planned to be gradual and long-lasting as the idea spreads the world. In Europe there are no comparable certifications currently in place. Heretofore there is no direct competitor and the certification has great potential to become successful. Vice versa there are other ecological certifications that could be complementary to company certification in the meaning of sustainability. At the legislative level, European Commission is preparing a repairability score to be implemented to consumer goods, however it will be limited and will not include any practical tools for the consumer. Organization can build on this legislation but moves the requirements to much more practical and comprehensive level.

Stage of development

Field tested/evaluated

Partner sought

The organization is looking for producers of potentially repairable products that follow the principles of circularity and therefore are interested in certification of product or group of products. The client aims to spread the information about repairable products via labeling and support responsible producers by presenting the confirmation of quality of their products in this field. The organization aims to be a relevant, independent third party support for producers in transition to circular economy. There is a vision that the collaboration would lead to successful certification and strong long term partnership. The type of partner is not restricted to any category, however and SME or an NGO would suit best to the certification needs.